


Endgame

by Bagheera



Category: DCU, Smallville
Genre: Amnesia, Darkfic, Foe Yay, mindgames, plans gone wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 10:19:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1092730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bagheera/pseuds/Bagheera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex doesn't remember the last eighteen years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Endgame

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [终局](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7367515) by [Teshub](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teshub/pseuds/Teshub)



> This is set about a decade after SV. It was written in 2007, but it's canon-compliant for all seasons (except Mercy Graves from animated canon exists in this fic).

Clark hung up on him the first few times. The third time they got five sentences into a conversation before it devolved into bitter accusations from Clark's side.

They caused a scene in the bullpen of the Daily Planet a day later when he tried to approach Clark in person. Lois threw a can of coke at Lex and Mercy nearly shot her.

But Lex hasn't done anything nefarious for a week. Maybe it's also because to other people, he must be looking like a drowned, lost billionaire, sitting on the doorstep of Clark's apartment building in the rain. Maybe Clark just really doesn't want him to be anywhere near his flat. In any case, he swoops in and grabs Lex like a hawk and drags him off.

Lex clings on to him the way all the other people Clark saves probably do – breathless and terrified.

Clark drops him on the roof of the Daily Planet and floats above him with his arms crossed and the cape slick and dark with rain.

Lex shivers a little, just from the cold and wetness. "You're flying," he says with the first breath he can catch.

Clark's eyes twitch just a bit and his mouth moves, like a record trying to get past the point where it's stuck. Water is running down his face, clinging to his lashes, dripping from his chin. Superman's perfect hair is undone, plastered to his forehead, and it will curl at the ends when it starts to dry.

Lex can tell the exact moment when Clark starts to believe him. He deflates a little, drops his arms to his sides and stares at Lex. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Lex has thought a lot about this. "The last clear thing I recall is talking to Cassandra Carver at the nursing home in Smallville. I asked her to tell me my future. She touched me. When she let go… she was dead."

Lex can tell by Clark's little painful frown that this is exactly the kind of irony their life tends to be so full of. Clark believes him. 

Lex wipes the rain from his scalp, but it's no use. "After that I remember… a girl. Dark-haired. We broke up."

"Victoria?" Clark asks, like he's afraid of the answer.

Lex stares at him. "Victoria? I dated Vicky Hardwick?"

Clark grimaces. He looks a lot like fifteen year-old Clark when he ducks his head like that. "I don't think dating is the right word, Lex. But yeah, Victoria Hardwick. Anything else you remember?"

"No." Lex wraps his arms around him, because it really is getting cold. It's windy up here, too, even though they stand in the shadow of the golden Daily Planet globe. The sky is a sickly mix of green and grey. It won't stop pouring. The rain is so loud that it drowns out the noise of the city, makes it seem as if they're only two people in the world. "Eighteen years. Nothing makes sense anymore, Clark."

"Superman," the correction comes immediately.

"I saw you on TV yesterday."

"I'm on TV a lot," Clark says, like it means nothing.

"I've read… Superman is an alien?"

Clark nods, slowly. Interestingly, it looks like Lex's reaction to this is going to matter to him.

"So." Lex takes a deep breath. "I hit you with my car."

Something tugs at Clark's lips, but it's not a smile. Something painful and sad instead. He looks down. "It's in the past, Lex."

"Not for me. Clark, this is… I'm still not sure what's even going on here. I'm thirty-nine. My Dad's dead. I own LuthorCorp."

"LexCorp," Clark corrects.

"And you're… doing this. Being on TV. Everyone knows about your powers."

Clark shakes his head. "Everyone knows about Superman's powers. Clark Kent is just a reporter at the Daily Planet."

"I know about you."

Another curt nod. Clark isn't happy about this. Lex takes a deep breath, smiles a twisted smile. "But we're not friends anymore. You didn't even believe me when I tried to tell you about this."

Clark looks him straight in the eyes. It carries the weight of the world, that stare. Lex can hold it, but only if he stays completely blank.

"We're enemies," Clark says.

Finally Lex can look away. He swallows. "Enemies."

For some reason, Clark takes a step closer. He wears the look of someone trying to stay hard. "You investigated me, Lex. You endangered my family. You hurt my friends. You're doing a lot of bad things. I try to stop you. Most of the time it works, but you still go on provoking me. You've sworn to bring me down."

"I've become my father."

Clark's jaw tenses. "You're worse than your father, Lex. You're… more dangerous than him."

"Do you think there's any chance I might be dreaming? Hallucinating, maybe? I could be having a psychotic break. It would account for your… costume."

Clark's sudden frown and fierce response are unexpected. "You're not having a psychotic break. You're a lot of things, Lex, but you're not a madman."

Lex looks away. "I don't know, Clark. Why else would I have fucked up my life like this?"

"This isn't what you wanted?" A sharp question, full of accusations. "You know my secret now. You're more powerful than your Dad ever dreamed of being."

It's true, but to Lex, in this moment, it feels hollow. Devoid of meaning, because it isn't what Lex wanted. He thought he did, right up until Clark said so. Now suddenly it feels like a lie. 

He turns around, heads for the stairs. "I wanted you to tell me your secret, Clark. I wanted nothing to stand between us. This -," the words slips from him, "isn’t the future. It's hell."

His hand is on the doorknob, and Lex thinks that maybe this is it, he has overestimated how much Clark still cares about him and Clark doesn't care whether he has forgotten everything or not, but at the very last moment he hears him say, "Lex, wait."

Lex stops, and risks a secret triumphant smile, because he's facing away from Clark. Oh yes, he knows Clark's buttons. Knows how to push them. Knows that Clark will never resist a victim that he could save.

Clark has swallowed the bait. Clark will trust him out of pity.

"I'm sorry," Lex says. His voice doesn't betray a sliver of what he feels.

Clark's hand on his shoulder startles him and he can't stop himself from tensing. He wants the ring, but of course he hasn't got it with him. Clark's hand slips from his shoulder to his biceps and he turns Lex around.

The look on Clark's face is rather startling, too. It's not pity. It's sad and open and sincere, those big damn green eyes rooting Lex to the spot. Lex is acutely aware of the door at his back, Clark's hand on his arm. He feels trapped.

"It's not all bad," Clark says softly.

For the first time in years, Lex is scared of what Clark can do to him. He tries to push it down, tries to be ruthless, but Clark isn't going along with the script.

"You hate me," Lex reminds him. Even to himself, he sounds shell-shocked. It would fit wonderfully into his little charade, but at the moment, Lex wants nothing so much as to back out of the plan before Clark can say something terrible.

Clark sighs. "I don't, Lex. I wish you wouldn't do some of the stuff you do. But… some of it is good, too. Superman can save the world – but you're actually making it better, some of the time."

Part of Lex screams _yes, yes, yes, I do, and you're the one who gets all the credit_ , but the rest of him wants to deny it all. Because Clark isn't done yet. Clark is smiling at him, apologetically, and he's going to say more.

"The truth is, I'm angry at you because you could be so much better if you just let yourself."

"I hate you," Lex whispers.

Clark still doesn't get it. Still thinks Lex doesn't remember the last eighteen years and all the proof of how much Lex hates him. All the good reasons he has for hating Clark. "No, you don't, Lex. If you did, Clark Kent would have been exposed a long time ago. If you did, I'd be dead."

Clark has broken the rules. He has escalated the situation, destroyed their fragile balance. Has mentioned the things Lex _hasn't_ done. Clark has driven him into a corner, as if he doesn't know how dangerous Lex is.

Now Lex needs to break the rules, too.

Now Lex has to step over that one last line he has let himself have.

A phone call, and the world will know about Superman's secret identity. Another phone call, and the world's best hired assassins will load their guns in Metropolis, in Smallville, in Gotham City – Clark will save a couple of his loved ones, Lex is sure of that. But not all of them.

"Sometimes we're allies," Clark says. "It's not that different from what it used to be like. You're still obsessed with me. I still save your life all the time. Sometimes you save mine."

And the media will be there to watch Superman tearing into LexCorp, all that terrible power unravelled. All the world will witness the end of an era, will see Lex Luthor's blood on Superman's hands. Maybe Clark will cry as he does it, tears running down his face like the rain now.

Lex will die knowing that he has brought Superman down.

"It's not all bad," Clark says.

But they should have been better.

Lex shivers when Clark moves in for the hug. The arms of the most powerful being on Earth wrap around him, hold him gentle and tight. Clark sighs against his ear, and it sounds almost happy.

Lex gives in and dies a little in Clark's arms.

It's always better when he comes back.


End file.
